The Lens: Japanese schools must relax strict rules on hair and appearance

Schools in Japan are known for their strict teachers and rules about appearance, and many of them are seen as too rigid.

Each person is different and has their own distinct physical characteristics. Japanese schools should not define “natural hair” as straight, black hair. Natural hair depends on one’s racial and cultural background. For example, mixed-race students could naturally have brown, blonde or even curly hair.

It is unreasonable to make these students dye or straighten their hair just to comply with school rules, which are too narrowly defined, and this could even be considered a form of racial discrimination.

Schools say they impose rules on their students to create a sense of uniformity and keep out any negative influences. Teachers in Japan seem to believe that teenagers dyeing or styling their hair in a unique way indicates they are “bad students”. However, does hair colour really reflect a person’s conduct?

Most people dye or style their hair simply because they like a certain style or colour; it does not mean anything about their character. Why do schools find it necessary to impose rules on appearance instead of behaviour?

Schools should think carefully about whether their rules are actually an effective way to maintain conduct or if they are just about control.

Read up on the issue in last week’s The Lens

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has faced backlash for using artificial intelligence to make robocalls that contort his voice into several languages he doesn’t actually speak, which poses new ethical questions about the government’s use of the rapidly evolving technology.

The mayor told reporters about the robocalls and said they’ve gone out in languages such as Mandarin and Yiddish to promote city hiring events. They haven’t included any disclosure that he only speaks English or that the calls were generated using AI.

“People stop me on the street and say: ‘I didn’t know you speak Mandarin,’” said Adams, a Democrat. “The robocalls that we’re using, we’re using different languages to speak directly to the diversity of New Yorkers.”

The calls come as regulators struggle to understand how to ethically and legally navigate the use of AI, where deepfake videos or audio can make people look like they are anywhere, doing whatever a person on a computer screen wants them to do.

In New York, watchdog group Surveillance Technology Oversight Project slammed Adams’ robocalls as an unethical use of artificial intelligence that is misleading to city residents.

In recent weeks, many tech companies have shown off AI tools that can synthetically dub a person’s speech in another language in a way that makes it sound like that person is speaking in that language.

Adams defended himself and the calls, saying his office is only trying to reach out to New Yorkers through the languages they speak.

“I got one thing: I’ve got to run the city, and I have to be able to speak to people in the languages that they understand, and I’m happy to do so,” he said. “And so, to all, all I can say is ni hao.”

Associated Press

• Do you know the man in the photo? What does he do?

• What ethical concerns may arise from the government’s use of artificial intelligence?